Lost Men Found
by AuthorAtHeart1049
Summary: Reposted from one a long time ago. Currently editing and re-writing parts. Jack still misses Ianto very much, how will he react when he sees the love of his life alive and in the flesh before him?


_A/N: I am sorry for not writing to you before. I have so many ideas drifting through my head that I have to pen them when they happen. I found some old ones that I am writing and putting up that are probably best left unnoticed. Some are old ones that I don't know what I was doing with that I took down and now I am re-writing. Please enjoy them._

**Chapter 1**

Jack turned his head, something catching the corner of his eye. Yet as fast as he'd turned, whatever it was had disappeared. As though it had never been there to start with. The alien they, they being just himself and Gwen, were trying to locate was much to volatile and they were planning to dispatch it on sight. The former Time Agent turned down what he assumed was a vacant alley. Way down at the end, he could see the silhouette of a man.

His brain completely turned off. If Jack didn't know any better, he would have sworn he was staring at the retreating figure of a ghost. The thoughts rushing through his head were tumbling over each other to the point that he didn't notice the beast coming at him. The captain's eyes were trained on that silhouette. It had the same crisp edges of a suit that a certain coffee-boy would have worn.

"Shit!" Jack yelled as the creature knocked him on his ass. "I am so not the bottom."

He started with a yelp as a gunshot rang out in the cramped alley. For several seconds, he thought it was he that had been it and he braced for death and resurrection. When nothing happened, he looked around. The creature was laying on its side, a pool of deeply colored, putrid smelling, green blood forming around its head. The strange person he'd seen earlier was facing him now, concealed by the shadows. Jack thought perhaps the man was doing that on purpose. Replacing the gun in the back of his trousers, the man turned and disappeared through a doorway.

"_Jack? Jack, are you okay? I heard a gunshot. Was that you?_" His comm buzzed to life in his ear, momentarily distracting him. The immortal man put his finger on the button to talk and sighed heavily.

"I'm fine, Gwen. I don't know who fired. It...it looked like him."

"_Him? Him who?_"

"Ianto." There was a soft crackling noise just before the comm went dead. In his mind, Jack had come up with two scenarios. The first being Gwen passed out. The second, she thought he'd finally found his way to the loony bin and smashed her comm. When she came rushing around the corner and up to him, it threw both of his ideas right out the window.

"Jack, are you okay? You look like shit..." She knelt down to help him up. It was then he noticed he'd never stood up after the whatever-it-was had attacked him.

"I think I'm losing my mind. I could have sworn it was him. Same beautiful suit, same stance, even the way he put the gun in the back of his pants was like Ianto!" It had been nearly 3 years, but it still hurt Jack every day to remember that Ianto wouldn't be coming in for work. Wouldn't be coming back at all.

"Jack Harkness snap out of it!" Gwen almost slapped him for good measure, but remembered that with him being her boss, that was a bad idea. "I know you miss him, but he's not here. Let's get this thing back to the Hub and dissect it."

"Oh...sure..." He hefted one of the beast's furry arms onto his shoulder and started to drag it away.

From the doorway of a small no-name pub, ice blue eyes looked out. He had nearly kept walking forward into the light of the street lamp. How the Welshman had wanted to go to the captain. The anguish he'd seen as Captain Harkness, the name still made him smile, walked by was enough to still his heart entirely.

"How could I possibly tell them...they'd never believe me. I'd get shot. Repeatedly." He shook his head and went into the pub. The alcohol wouldn't last long in his system, but he could try. Ianto couldn't even remember the Cold Storage door being opened. He remembered being in the Thames House with Jack, dying from whatever virus 4-5-6 had released into the air. Next thing he knew he was waking up in this really odd looking room. Wires dangling from all over the place and a very confused red-head staring back at him.

"What can I get for you, sir?" The bartender asked politely. He just stared for a second, forgetting where he was.

"Oh, um...whiskey please." He turned away. The Doctor...at least now he knew whom Jack had been talking about. It was going to be bad having to tell Jack that there was no cure for him. He would stay that way for a very very long time. They both would. The memory of her screaming at him was the most blunt in his mind. He'd heard a very loud multi-voiced "LIVE" come at him. Finding himself in the Hub, he started collecting his things and left through the secret alarm-free back tunnels. He had wound up wandering through Cardiff for something to do at the absurd hour of 2am.

The small man on the other side of the counter handed him the glass with a soft smile. He completely ignored whatever the other way saying to him. It meant very little. A hand on his shoulder made him turn around to look. The sneer that pulled at his lip couldn't have been stopped with a bulldozer.

"Hart."

"Eye candy! I thought you were dead. That's what Jacky-boy said anyways." Jon Hart looked him over. Ianto couldn't help himself, as once more he sneered at Jon. It was his natural reaction to the man.

"As you can clearly see, I am alive and well." His eyes moved into a squint of their own accord as he placed his now empty glass on the counter. "Is there something you want besides harassing me?"

"Ohhh...touchy Eye candy. Three years doesn't do a thing for your manners." Jon tutted him like a little boy. Ianto made a face. Three years? Time flew for one that was no longer living. It felt as though he had only died the day before.

"Then he hasn't forgotten me...I have to go. Congratulations, you're paying my bill." Without so much as looking back, he grabbed his jacket and left the bar. Shaking his head, he walked the short mile to the Hub and stopped just outside of camera's reach. "What am I doing? I can't just go barging in there...Idea."

As quickly as possible, he typed the message _outside? _into the text screen of his cell phone and sent it to Jack. He closed the lid and hoped Jack didn't think it was some kind of nasty joke. When Ianto had been in Cold Storage area he had found it awkward that all of his belongings were in a box next to the door. His mobile buzzing caused him to nearly fly off of the wooden bench.

_Who this?_ it read on the screen under Jack's number.

_Please just come outside, Jack._

_WHO ARE YOU?_

_ Ianto. _He'd hit send before he could think to take it back, and in a flurry of gray-blue coat, Jack was standing on the pier. His Webley aimed directly at Ianto. Calm blue looked into angered. Ianto really shouldn't have been surprised at his reaction.

"What the hell game do you think you're playing?" The angered leader of Torchwood 3 shouted. His mind said that it wasn't his Ianto, but his heart said it was. "If you have a weapon, now would be the time to give it up."

The younger brunette didn't argue or attempt to fight back. He simply pulled out his pistol and set it on the ground. Kicking it over to Jack, he raised his hands in a motion of self-defense. Confusion flashed on the man's face. The pistol was the one he'd bought for Ianto on the day he'd been promoted from just being the archivist. He picked it up.

"I swear I'm not being funny or trying to pull some strange prank on you. It really is me, Jack." Ianto looked down. He heard the sound of the gun being cocked and flinched slightly. Not having the ability to stay dead didn't make dying any less unpleasant. "Shoot me if it will make you happy."

Jack, without knowing what else to do, pulled the trigger. He saw the now lifeless body slump back over the bench and cautiously stepped toward it. Something seemed immensely off with the scene. He realized what it was. On the body was a tie that no one else had seen. Jack had given it to Ianto when he'd come back from suspension. Why he'd given him that horrible pink and white paisley tie was a mystery even to him.

With a sudden intake of air, Ianto shot forward. "God dammit! I hate that. How do you not want to rip off your own skin?"

Jack couldn't answer. He was standing there open-mouthed. Had he just seen what he thought he saw? The world around him faded to black. Ianto pulled out his ever-handy stopwatch and clicked the button on top. Might as well have some fun while he was here.

Almost twenty minutes on the dot went by before Jack woke up. He looked down to find Ianto's little stopwatch in his right hand and pistol in his left. The first thought that crossed his mind was what exactly was he doing out here? Instinct took over and he clicked the top of the stopwatch.

"Huh, 21:38...was that how long I was out? Wait. I shot...I saw..." His world was getting fuzzy on the edges again when a flustered looking Gwen ran up to him. She shook his shoulders. Having seen him stumble a few paces and fall on the CCTV, she had gotten up to the surface as quickly as she could. "Nnnnnn...Ianto..."

"Ianto? No, I'm Gwen. Jack, wake up." He opened his eyes and looked at her. "What were you doing? This is no place to take a nap. Even Ethan knows better."

He shook his head. Her three year old often napped wherever he happened to be. Several times they'd found him unconscious on the benches by the water fountain.

"Gwen, I saw Ianto. Fuck, I shot him!"

"What?" Her face grew concerned as she helped the man to stand for the second time that day. "Jack, I think you've been outside too long. Getting hallucinations..."

"No. I really saw and shot him. Right here!" Jack pointed between his own eyes. The Welsh woman just sighed. "He...well, he pulled a Jack on me."

"He what?"

"That thing I do. Where I splutter and come back from the dead. Ianto did that!"

"Okay...give me the pistols. I'm getting you a cup of water and you're resting for the rest of the day. Got that?" In a very non-Jack fashion, he clucked at her. Gwen reached down and took the two pistols and the stopwatch from him more forcefully than necessary. "You've gone off your rocker."

"Have not..."

* space *

Ianto stood motionless once more. It was the middle of the night and he was just outside of the camera's range. In the two weeks since he'd come back from death most of his nights had been spent on a bench just on the other side of the road. Staring at the Hub. Trying to remember something of his time in the other world. It just made no sense, it was like someone had pressed the erase button in his mind. He remembered dying, and he remembered waking up in that space ship. Nothing at all came in between. Nothing when he'd been shot either.

He turned, no longer content to stand and watch, and started back toward the flat he'd rented. Feet carried him along the now familiar path so well that his mind was given time to wander. Ianto had always been curious of what Jack felt when he died. If it hurt, he could remember anything from the death, and how he felt coming back from the dead. All questions now answered, he had time to ponder life. His mind still reeled at actually seeing his beloved Jack again.

"And of course he shot me, I'd have shot me given the chance." The now immortal Welshman shook his head. He'd known how Jack would react. It was simple enough when you thought about it. Someone you thought was dead for three years suddenly pops back up in the last place you thought he would be? Of course Jack shot him.

"You're still here?" Ianto's head snapped to the side, startled by the voice of the person from his thoughts. It wasn't like Jack Harkness to be quiet...ever. It was as though he didn't know not to talk or make some odd little noises.

"Where else would I be? My landlady thinks I'm dead, so my old flat is gone...well, everyone thinks I'm dead. I don't really need to eat or sleep now. Can't find a suitable job. I just sit. And stare. Usually at the birds."

"I meant you're still..._here_. In this world. I'd thought I was hallucinating. Gwen thought I'd lost it. I thought I'd lost it." Jack sat on the bench beside him, eyes wide with wonderment at his love sitting right there next to him. "At least I reacted better this time..."

_A/N: FYI for those that may be confused (this was a problem the last time I posted this story), Jon did **not** give Ianto his jacket. Typically when one is in a bar or pub, they will take off their blazer or sport coat and sit it on a peg or their chair. When Ianto got up in a rush, he was grabbing his own coat. Jon did not suddenly turn a new leaf and decide to be nice._


End file.
